March 17, 2020
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is here to continue to provide resources to our community, including our faculty, students, and our colleges. Our entire system is working tirelessly to ensure that our faculty and students, as well as their families and communities, get the support they need. The Academic Senate put together this page to provide a list of resources to the community; we hope you find the resources useful.
The COVID-19 situation is ever evolving and as new updates continue to roll out, it's important that we communicate with one another. If you have any questions or any additional resources, please send them to the Academic Senate - info [at] asccc.org. We will do our best to provide responses.
- California Office of the Governor
- California Department of Public Health
- Centers for Disease Control
- World Health Organization
- CA.gov COVID-19 Resources
- ASCCC President's Update - April 2020
- ASCCC President's Update - March 2020
March 23, 2020
The Academic Senate has received many questions regarding the Brown Act and Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-29-20. The following guidance is below:
California legislative bodies that follow the Brown Act or the Bagley-Keene Act currently have more flexibility to meet remotely because of Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-29-20, which became available on March 17, 2020. For those who already adhere to the Brown Act, the best advice is to closely review the executive order itself to see what’s permissible. Here are the highlights of N-29-20:
The order reads that “All requirements in both the Bagley-Keene Act and the Brown Act expressly or impliedly requiring the physical presence of members, the clerk, or other personnel of the body, or of the public as a condition of participation in or quorum for a public meeting are hereby waived.” The order emphasizes that the legislative body must, each time it gives notices of meetings, advertise the means by which the public may comment and the procedure the legislative body will use to address “requests for reasonable modification or accommodation from individuals with disabilities, consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and resolving any doubt whatsoever in favor of accessibility.”
Specifically, by suspending certain requirements of the Brown and Bagley-Keene Acts, N-29-20 allows the following:
- Legislative bodies may meet remotely using teleconference technology without providing a physical location or requiring any member or personnel be present at a physical location accessible to the public.
- The agenda does not need to state the teleconference location from which each member will participate.
- Members of the legislative body do not need to allow members of the public to join them at their physical location in order to comment. Instead, agendas and notices should state the means by which the public may participate.
- Agendas do not need to be posted at every teleconference location, as they normally would be under Brown or Bagley-Keene.
- The legislative body can meet remotely even if a quorum or more of its members are joining remotely from beyond the boundaries of the legislative body’s jurisdiction.
Where posting of agendas is concerned, the executive order states that legislative bodies are still responsible for adhering to the same “timeframes” and “means otherwise prescribed by the Bagley-Keene Act or the Brown Act” but that each notice must also give information about how members of the public may observe and comment and about how the legislative body will resolve requests for accommodations and accessible materials. The executive order allows that if agendas have already been posted and now need to be updated to reflect a change in how the public may participate, the legislative body may alert the public via “the most rapid means of communication available at the time,” which the order clarifies includes, but is not limited to “posting such means on the body’s internet site.” In other words, if you have already posted an agenda that does not indicate how the public may observe or comment remotely, you may post an updated agenda including this information on your academic senate’s website.
The executive order urges legislative bodies “to use sound discretion and make reasonable efforts to adhere as closely as reasonably possible to the provisions of the Bagley-Keene Act and the Brown Act.” It may not be sound nor advisable to travel to a site to post a physical agenda, but legislative bodies should make all efforts to ensure that their meetings are publically noticed in accordance with Government Code section 54954.2. We would encourage local senate presidents to seek the advice of their district regarding this requirement, but the executive order does provide flexibility and allows for the context of the local emergency to dictate the actions of the local senate in compliance. Additionally, California residents are now under a shelter-in-place order, per Executive Order N-33-20, which in most cases will make posting a physical copy of the agenda at the college campus impossible. Please note that Executive Order N-29-20 is even more permissive than N-25-20, which it supersedes.
March 30, 2020
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is committed to providing resources to the field to further empower and help our system move forward during this time of crisis. To that end, the Academic Senate has put togehter a series of professional development opportunities to address some of the most critical issues facing our students and faculty today. Part 1 offers discipline specific siscussion multiple times during the week and is limited to 15 participants to enable rich dialogue and discussion. The discussions will not be recorded, but promising ideas will be posted and shared on our website. Part 2 is focused on topics of governance, remote instruction, counseling, and remaining equity-focused in the midst of crisis.
Part 1: ASCCC Discipline-Specific Discussions
Part 2: ASCCC: Governance, Remote Teaching, and Discipline Discussions
Additional sections of the series will be announced in the future.
April 2, 2020
The California College Student Emergency Support Fund has launched to give one-time $500 hardship grants to students. Administered by Mission Asset Fund (MAF), the Fund is a statewide philanthropic response to address emergency needs for the state’s low-income college students, including undocumented immigrants, foster youth, and those who are housing insecure. Students can apply for a grant online. Please encourage your students to apply as quickly as possible as these funds will go fast.